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Eurofurence 27 - Black Magic
Sep. 12th, 2023 12:18 amThe train to Hamburg was reasonably swift, although we did have to deal with a belligerent man who did not accept we had reserved the seats he was sitting in. He was reasonable enough though and vacated, although I don't really enjoy such confrontation. Still, it seems to be the nature of Deutsche Bahn journeys as this isn't the first time this has happened. What surprised me was just how swift it was to get to Hamburg Dammtor. Indeed, point to point, from our house to the Convention Centre where Eurofurence was taking place, it was only two hours. This was only an hour longer than it took us to get to the Estrel last year, and that's in the same city where we live.
Our hotel was the Hotel Alster-Hof, which was about five minutes' walk from the Congress Centre Hamburg, where Eurofurence was taking place. It was also only five minutes' walk from Dammtor train station, and with its direct train to Spandau, this proved to be exceptionally convenient. Soon, we had checked into our hotel and were given a room on the seventh floor, which had a balcony which overlooked the city. It was around this time that I realised I had forgotten my jacket on the train. This came about because I had taken the big bag off the luggage rack and Wolfie had taken the rucksack, failing to see my jacket was up there too. I completely forgot about it. I have lodged a lost and found report, telling Deutsche Bahn exactly where I left it, but as of yet it has still not been found. I doubt I will ever see it again. It is a tatty thing that I bought for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow back in 2014, but it does have some sentimental value. With the other one stuck at Blacksnip's house, I am also jacketless for the coming weeks.
I was feeling somewhat down about the jacket as we made our way to the convention centre. En route, we bumped into Emily, who was staying at the hotel next door. After saying our greetings, we headed to register, realising that as it was the middle of the opening ceremony, it was likely to be quick. This deduction was correct as there was no queue at all, meaning we had the most stress-free registration experience imaginable. Thinking that the same would be true for food later on, we decided to grab our meal early. We looked at the prices of the pizza truck outside but they were absolutely extortionate, so instead we went to McDonald's at Dammtor station. The queue here was quite long and there were a number of people pushing in, but we got our meal within about 15 minutes. Alas, I ended up getting two sets of meals as they repeated my order, with one member of staff taking it upon herself to prepare our meal without the guy with whom I ordered knowing. I thought I got my German wrong, as they argued amongst ourselves about the order, but in the end I took just one tray. The burger was incredibly disappointing but the fries were crisp and piping hot and, coated with salt, took me back to the 1990s when the McDonald's fries were so wonderous.
There were two events we wanted to do on the Sunday evening, the first being Birdy's wine and cheese tasting. This is a tradition on the opening night and one we could not attend last year as it clashed with our beer tasting. As we declined to do this this year (basically I forgot to register it), we were free to share wine and cheese. One poor lady ended up being the unofficial cheese slicer, handing out slabs of it cut from the humungous wheel while a few people brought cheese of their own. We had a fair bit of wine to sample too, and it was a convivial and easy way to meet people on the opening night. Alas, simultaneously, they had scheduled Gao's Asian Furmeet, which I thought was a meet and greet. When I turned up, about an hour after it had began, I was shocked to see Gao presenting videos from various SE Asian furcons. Upon my arrival, he then asked me to give a brief presentation on FURUM, which I had to do ad hoc. Still, I think I was up to the challenge.
At 9pm, there was a water and light show at the lake in the park adjacent to the Congress Centre. As this was the only night it was happening during our stay, largely because it was going to close for maintainence during the following week, many of us headed down there to watch the proceedings. I had forgotten about it until Gamepopper prompted me about fifteen minutes ahead of time, and I am very glad he did, as the thirty-minute show was fantastic. The music, lighting and water was all choreographed perfectly and while we couldn't see the base lighting due to there being a bush in the way, it was still a wonderful show. It perhaps went on ten minutes too long, but that would just be complaining.
The rest of the evening, we largely spent in the adjacent Radisson Blu bar drinking with Evi and Nanomium. Later on, Gummi Bjorn arrived, and we ended up drinking until the bar closed. We then headed to the main dance area, where the only remaining bar that was open was serving. They only had Holsten, which was awful, and Astra Urtyp, which was marginally better, but beggars can't be choosers. We ended up staying in the main entrance area, listening to people butchering songs on karaoke. Unlike the Estrel, the main small performance stage for impromptu performances was right at the front of the building near the main entrance. This meant it was also next to the main cafeteria so it was far more public and therefore far less impromptu than in Berlin. There was jamming sessions during the day and karaoke at night, but you couldn't get away from it. This was a particular problem when the singing or performing was bad. It was interesting that there were so many rock and metal songs being sung or performed yet, again, no rock or metal DJ sets. I've long given up on getting these at Eurofurence, their stubborn myopia is renowned, but it would have been nice.
Breakfast was included at the Hotel Alster-Hof so we popped down around 10am. Wolfie hadn't slept very well as I had kept him up with my snoring, while I have been suffering more from sleep apneoa of late. I think it has something to do with the heavy boozing, which I have started to quit from this week. The breakfast was largely continental although there was delicious bacon and scrambled eggs. Once we were done, we headed back upstairs for a nap, with Wolfie sleeping in until 5pm. I wanted to get some fursuit photos done, but due to Wolfie's tiredness, we postponed this until the Tuesday. I also wanted to head to the ABDL meet and greet at 3pm, which wasn't officially advertised but was on certain Telegram chats. This was a nice little gathering and it was great to be reacquainted with some old friends. We also talked a lot about the little scene in general, Qualgeist and the furry community in general. Some of it was a little doom and gloom - I don't believe the wider world does hate kinksters that much - but it was worth emphasising the power of our own togetherness.
After this, I managed to get into the Dealers' Den, with the queue being significantly reduced later in the day. I picked up a few books from Fusselschwarm and enquired whether they had the book in which I was published earlier in the year. Alas, they told me, they no longer stock books by that publisher. I also picked up some books from TaniDaReal's stand as well as a paw-shaped ice cube mould for Miles at his request. Finding this stand proved to be tricky. On the Wednesday, I caught up with Nattrium, who was selling nine different beers, ciders and seltzers. I made sure to try most of them before I bought, while I also chatted with Viper and Mico, whose stall was next door. They're making some great fursuits these days and I'd be tempted to get one should I get a job soon. I also spoke with Nerumi, an Argentinian fur I met at ArFF who now lives in Spain. We met up at EF last year too.
We had been alerted to a furry BDSM night that was taking place in club baSeMent just off the Rieperbahn on the Monday evening. Sadly, we had only been alerted to this after we had left Spandau and thus we hadn't packed much of our gear. Still, we wanted to go down so after a trip to Five Guys for some food, we boarded a bus and got there shortly after it opened at 7pm. I was wandering around central Hamburg in all my fem gear and I didn't really care, while a few people commented on how much they liked my outfit. This gave me huge confidence, but I felt a little on edge when entering the club. The volunteer staff there were wonderful and very friendly, showing us around and giving us some house rules. There is a bar on the top floor and five small dungeon rooms below with various pieces of equipment. The highlight was an adapted gyaneocological chair, which we got to use later in the evening. What surprised me was how few people were actually playing, with most of the fifty or so attendees just lazing around in expensive rubber gear. I guess whatever makes you happy I guess. Our friend Rawdog turned up about an hour in, along with his boyfriend, although he was quite impenetrable and didn't say much. Once we had finished playing - and Wolfie made sure everyone could watch who wanted to - we had a few drinks before ordering a taxi home when the place closed. We waited outside a while as the Uber driver got lost, and I had to warn people about Germany's noise laws, but soon we got back, only to find a passed out homeless guy right outside the station. He was being attended to, but I fear he may have been dead. After this, we hung around drinking for a while before playing Secret Hitler in one of the upstairs areas. This card game was actually quite fun and I got the hang of it quickly, even if I was initially reticent to play. We ended up playing until security kicked us downstairs at around 2:45am.
Tuesday was the day we were meant to leave, but Wolfie had another poor night's sleep, largely because of me. We met Skaugen over breakfast and checked out, with Wolfie really suffering. We left our luggage behind and mooched for a bit, bumping into Volskar in the Radisson Blu bar while having a coffee. He invited us to his 17th floor room, which afforded a wonderful view over the city. It was here, after speaking with him, that we decided to book into the Radisson that evening and stay another night. This made sense as it only cost us €216, thus €108 each. It was definitely much much cheaper than it had been when registration opened back in the winter. Meanwhile, Wolfie was feeling sick as well as tired, and really needed to rest. I had been toying with coming back on the train on the Wednesday anyway, but this option was only marginally more expensive plus it was less hassle and we had more time at the con. Consequently, we booked. We had to leave Volskar's before 3pm as he had a cuddle photoshoot, so we checked into our new room before picking up our bags and bringing them over. Wolfie then had a couple of hours sleep while I walked around, bumping into Latimer, Gallen and Snow Wolf, with whom I chatted for an hour.
Another reason I wanted to stay the night was I needed to get some fursuit photos and with the weather hitting 30C, the evening would be better. Furthermore, I would definitely need a shower afterwards and without access to one, I didn't really want to stink for the rest of the day. At least with a room in the Radisson, I could get clean. We took photos in various parts of the convention centre, as well as in the courtyard outside and around the Japanese Garden. A number of fursuiters were doing the same, while a load of families wanted pictures too. At one point, one couple asked me whether I really feel like a dog, so I had to explain the concept of therians to them in German. Meanwhile, a couple of astute kids could hear me laughing inside the suit, such was the good time I was having. It was great getting out in fursuit and the public interaction was most welcome - it is often much better than just interacting with furries.
We went back inside at around 7:30pm and chilled for a bit before going out for dinner. Initially, I suggested we go up to Bar Two Six on the 26th floor as this afforded an excellent view of the city and, it being sunset, I thought it would be most evocative. It didn't disappoint, although I didn't realise there was an outside bar area, we were placed inside. The service was exceptionally slow though and although my gin and tonic was nice, it was a mite spendy. The problem with doing this first was that by the time we left, it was well past 9pm and getting food was difficult. We tried to go to Down Under Bar about five minutes walk away (and past a clock that kept a tally of Hamburg's national debt for some reason) but they were swamped by their wings night and turned us away. We toyed with going to Five Guys again but in the end ended up in Hofbrauhaus. We had to order quickly as their kitchen was closing at 10pm, but we managed to grab a couple of schnizels and a beer and we were happy.
Wednesday was our final day and again Wolfie slept poorly. I felt really bad and offered to leave the room at 8am to enable him to get at least four hours of sleep, but in the end we slept through pretty soundly. We packed our luggage and left it behind the desk before getting some drinks from the bar (in my case a hot chocolate). We then headed up to the VR Furs meet-up at 1:30pm, which was in the Dallas room of the Radisson Blu. This was very busy and over-subscribed, making the room unbearably stuffy in the 30C heat. One poor guy ended up collapsing and needed medical attention for at least fifteen minutes, necessitating a partial evacuation of the room to ensure he could leave if necessary. This was after the host had asked some basic straw poll questions such as how many hours we had played VR Chat and which devices we used. He also asked who used Unity and the like. Even with my 373 hours, I felt somewhat of a novice and when we were asked to split into small groups and just chat, I spoke to a few people before heading off.
Our next event was Gamepopper's 32 Years of EuroFurries, which took place in Los Angeles. This was very interesting and was based on his research for a forthcoming article. He also incorporated a lot of information from his excellently researched book Furtannia, which I have started to read, having bought it during my stay in the UK. The presentation lasted just over an hour and it was a great summary of all of the furry cons currently ongoing in Europe. The highlight for me was the early history of the fandom, particularly of Eurofurence, which I didn't quite know.
We had been trying to speak to Fox Amoore for most of the week, but he was always busy with con commitments. Fortunately, we were able to meet up in the Radisson Blu bar for a quick drink at 6pm, before he had to perform in the Pawpet Show. It was great catching up with him, if only for half an hour, and we're going to have to meet up properly again soon.
Once he had gone, we had an hour to kill before our train. Upon checking its status, I noted that it said 'Entrance and Exit not possible at station', which to my mind suggested the station was closed. In retrospect, what I think it meant was the train was no longer calling there, as I noticed later there had been an incident involving a bridge. Earlier in the day, I had noticed that Notefox had booked the same train but from Hamburg Hbf rather than Hamburg Dammtor. I dropped a message to check the status of his train and he said he had had no alerts, so I reasoned we needed to get to Hauptbahnhof. Fortunately, it was walkable in 25 minutes, but once we had picked up our bags, we checked Dammtor anyway. There, we noticed the S-Bahn trains were running, so we took them one stop to the main station. I was a little flustered though and ended up having a small tiff with Wolfie, while needing four ticket machines to accept my credit card didn't help either. I was also wearing my fem gear as I had no time to change, although no-one card and the nice Deutsche Bahn lady even commented on my look as we got off at Spandau. The train was delayed by about 10 minutes, meaning we had to sit around at Hauptbahnhof for around half an hour, but once on board, it was plain sailing. I sat next to Notefox - he had a reserved seat and we didn't, but there were enough free - and I encouraged him to get a disappointing chili con carne as he was hungry. We also gave him a can of orange beer that Gao had kindly presented us with. We got home shortly before 10pm, exhausted but happy.
I hadn't expected much from Eurofurence this year, fearing the convention centre approach wouldn't work. I feared furs all staying in different hotels would be too scattered and while this made room parties and impromptu gatherings more difficult, the vibe itself was good. The convention centre was a little soulless and not having exclusivity - we had to share with a skin cancer conference on the Wednesday - made it less our own little world, but the panels and events were as strong as ever. I felt a little down about not going to the pawpet show, charity concert (which to be fair had sold out before I had committed to staying on the Wednesday) or the fursuit theatre, but the queues were long and these performances lengthy. I tend to prefer streaming them anyway. The fact that it's only two hours from home helps and the fact we ended up staying another night was testament to how good it was. There was no Dead Dog this year, largely because an extra day renting the CCH would be expensive, but considering just how last-minute this all was, they pulled off a miracle just to make it all work. I'll likely come back next year, even if few of my British friends are likely to attend, as there were enough people we knew to make the week memorable. Hopefully next year, too, it'll switch back to its traditional Thursday through Saturday dates.
Our hotel was the Hotel Alster-Hof, which was about five minutes' walk from the Congress Centre Hamburg, where Eurofurence was taking place. It was also only five minutes' walk from Dammtor train station, and with its direct train to Spandau, this proved to be exceptionally convenient. Soon, we had checked into our hotel and were given a room on the seventh floor, which had a balcony which overlooked the city. It was around this time that I realised I had forgotten my jacket on the train. This came about because I had taken the big bag off the luggage rack and Wolfie had taken the rucksack, failing to see my jacket was up there too. I completely forgot about it. I have lodged a lost and found report, telling Deutsche Bahn exactly where I left it, but as of yet it has still not been found. I doubt I will ever see it again. It is a tatty thing that I bought for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow back in 2014, but it does have some sentimental value. With the other one stuck at Blacksnip's house, I am also jacketless for the coming weeks.
I was feeling somewhat down about the jacket as we made our way to the convention centre. En route, we bumped into Emily, who was staying at the hotel next door. After saying our greetings, we headed to register, realising that as it was the middle of the opening ceremony, it was likely to be quick. This deduction was correct as there was no queue at all, meaning we had the most stress-free registration experience imaginable. Thinking that the same would be true for food later on, we decided to grab our meal early. We looked at the prices of the pizza truck outside but they were absolutely extortionate, so instead we went to McDonald's at Dammtor station. The queue here was quite long and there were a number of people pushing in, but we got our meal within about 15 minutes. Alas, I ended up getting two sets of meals as they repeated my order, with one member of staff taking it upon herself to prepare our meal without the guy with whom I ordered knowing. I thought I got my German wrong, as they argued amongst ourselves about the order, but in the end I took just one tray. The burger was incredibly disappointing but the fries were crisp and piping hot and, coated with salt, took me back to the 1990s when the McDonald's fries were so wonderous.
There were two events we wanted to do on the Sunday evening, the first being Birdy's wine and cheese tasting. This is a tradition on the opening night and one we could not attend last year as it clashed with our beer tasting. As we declined to do this this year (basically I forgot to register it), we were free to share wine and cheese. One poor lady ended up being the unofficial cheese slicer, handing out slabs of it cut from the humungous wheel while a few people brought cheese of their own. We had a fair bit of wine to sample too, and it was a convivial and easy way to meet people on the opening night. Alas, simultaneously, they had scheduled Gao's Asian Furmeet, which I thought was a meet and greet. When I turned up, about an hour after it had began, I was shocked to see Gao presenting videos from various SE Asian furcons. Upon my arrival, he then asked me to give a brief presentation on FURUM, which I had to do ad hoc. Still, I think I was up to the challenge.
At 9pm, there was a water and light show at the lake in the park adjacent to the Congress Centre. As this was the only night it was happening during our stay, largely because it was going to close for maintainence during the following week, many of us headed down there to watch the proceedings. I had forgotten about it until Gamepopper prompted me about fifteen minutes ahead of time, and I am very glad he did, as the thirty-minute show was fantastic. The music, lighting and water was all choreographed perfectly and while we couldn't see the base lighting due to there being a bush in the way, it was still a wonderful show. It perhaps went on ten minutes too long, but that would just be complaining.
The rest of the evening, we largely spent in the adjacent Radisson Blu bar drinking with Evi and Nanomium. Later on, Gummi Bjorn arrived, and we ended up drinking until the bar closed. We then headed to the main dance area, where the only remaining bar that was open was serving. They only had Holsten, which was awful, and Astra Urtyp, which was marginally better, but beggars can't be choosers. We ended up staying in the main entrance area, listening to people butchering songs on karaoke. Unlike the Estrel, the main small performance stage for impromptu performances was right at the front of the building near the main entrance. This meant it was also next to the main cafeteria so it was far more public and therefore far less impromptu than in Berlin. There was jamming sessions during the day and karaoke at night, but you couldn't get away from it. This was a particular problem when the singing or performing was bad. It was interesting that there were so many rock and metal songs being sung or performed yet, again, no rock or metal DJ sets. I've long given up on getting these at Eurofurence, their stubborn myopia is renowned, but it would have been nice.
Breakfast was included at the Hotel Alster-Hof so we popped down around 10am. Wolfie hadn't slept very well as I had kept him up with my snoring, while I have been suffering more from sleep apneoa of late. I think it has something to do with the heavy boozing, which I have started to quit from this week. The breakfast was largely continental although there was delicious bacon and scrambled eggs. Once we were done, we headed back upstairs for a nap, with Wolfie sleeping in until 5pm. I wanted to get some fursuit photos done, but due to Wolfie's tiredness, we postponed this until the Tuesday. I also wanted to head to the ABDL meet and greet at 3pm, which wasn't officially advertised but was on certain Telegram chats. This was a nice little gathering and it was great to be reacquainted with some old friends. We also talked a lot about the little scene in general, Qualgeist and the furry community in general. Some of it was a little doom and gloom - I don't believe the wider world does hate kinksters that much - but it was worth emphasising the power of our own togetherness.
After this, I managed to get into the Dealers' Den, with the queue being significantly reduced later in the day. I picked up a few books from Fusselschwarm and enquired whether they had the book in which I was published earlier in the year. Alas, they told me, they no longer stock books by that publisher. I also picked up some books from TaniDaReal's stand as well as a paw-shaped ice cube mould for Miles at his request. Finding this stand proved to be tricky. On the Wednesday, I caught up with Nattrium, who was selling nine different beers, ciders and seltzers. I made sure to try most of them before I bought, while I also chatted with Viper and Mico, whose stall was next door. They're making some great fursuits these days and I'd be tempted to get one should I get a job soon. I also spoke with Nerumi, an Argentinian fur I met at ArFF who now lives in Spain. We met up at EF last year too.
We had been alerted to a furry BDSM night that was taking place in club baSeMent just off the Rieperbahn on the Monday evening. Sadly, we had only been alerted to this after we had left Spandau and thus we hadn't packed much of our gear. Still, we wanted to go down so after a trip to Five Guys for some food, we boarded a bus and got there shortly after it opened at 7pm. I was wandering around central Hamburg in all my fem gear and I didn't really care, while a few people commented on how much they liked my outfit. This gave me huge confidence, but I felt a little on edge when entering the club. The volunteer staff there were wonderful and very friendly, showing us around and giving us some house rules. There is a bar on the top floor and five small dungeon rooms below with various pieces of equipment. The highlight was an adapted gyaneocological chair, which we got to use later in the evening. What surprised me was how few people were actually playing, with most of the fifty or so attendees just lazing around in expensive rubber gear. I guess whatever makes you happy I guess. Our friend Rawdog turned up about an hour in, along with his boyfriend, although he was quite impenetrable and didn't say much. Once we had finished playing - and Wolfie made sure everyone could watch who wanted to - we had a few drinks before ordering a taxi home when the place closed. We waited outside a while as the Uber driver got lost, and I had to warn people about Germany's noise laws, but soon we got back, only to find a passed out homeless guy right outside the station. He was being attended to, but I fear he may have been dead. After this, we hung around drinking for a while before playing Secret Hitler in one of the upstairs areas. This card game was actually quite fun and I got the hang of it quickly, even if I was initially reticent to play. We ended up playing until security kicked us downstairs at around 2:45am.
Tuesday was the day we were meant to leave, but Wolfie had another poor night's sleep, largely because of me. We met Skaugen over breakfast and checked out, with Wolfie really suffering. We left our luggage behind and mooched for a bit, bumping into Volskar in the Radisson Blu bar while having a coffee. He invited us to his 17th floor room, which afforded a wonderful view over the city. It was here, after speaking with him, that we decided to book into the Radisson that evening and stay another night. This made sense as it only cost us €216, thus €108 each. It was definitely much much cheaper than it had been when registration opened back in the winter. Meanwhile, Wolfie was feeling sick as well as tired, and really needed to rest. I had been toying with coming back on the train on the Wednesday anyway, but this option was only marginally more expensive plus it was less hassle and we had more time at the con. Consequently, we booked. We had to leave Volskar's before 3pm as he had a cuddle photoshoot, so we checked into our new room before picking up our bags and bringing them over. Wolfie then had a couple of hours sleep while I walked around, bumping into Latimer, Gallen and Snow Wolf, with whom I chatted for an hour.
Another reason I wanted to stay the night was I needed to get some fursuit photos and with the weather hitting 30C, the evening would be better. Furthermore, I would definitely need a shower afterwards and without access to one, I didn't really want to stink for the rest of the day. At least with a room in the Radisson, I could get clean. We took photos in various parts of the convention centre, as well as in the courtyard outside and around the Japanese Garden. A number of fursuiters were doing the same, while a load of families wanted pictures too. At one point, one couple asked me whether I really feel like a dog, so I had to explain the concept of therians to them in German. Meanwhile, a couple of astute kids could hear me laughing inside the suit, such was the good time I was having. It was great getting out in fursuit and the public interaction was most welcome - it is often much better than just interacting with furries.
We went back inside at around 7:30pm and chilled for a bit before going out for dinner. Initially, I suggested we go up to Bar Two Six on the 26th floor as this afforded an excellent view of the city and, it being sunset, I thought it would be most evocative. It didn't disappoint, although I didn't realise there was an outside bar area, we were placed inside. The service was exceptionally slow though and although my gin and tonic was nice, it was a mite spendy. The problem with doing this first was that by the time we left, it was well past 9pm and getting food was difficult. We tried to go to Down Under Bar about five minutes walk away (and past a clock that kept a tally of Hamburg's national debt for some reason) but they were swamped by their wings night and turned us away. We toyed with going to Five Guys again but in the end ended up in Hofbrauhaus. We had to order quickly as their kitchen was closing at 10pm, but we managed to grab a couple of schnizels and a beer and we were happy.
Wednesday was our final day and again Wolfie slept poorly. I felt really bad and offered to leave the room at 8am to enable him to get at least four hours of sleep, but in the end we slept through pretty soundly. We packed our luggage and left it behind the desk before getting some drinks from the bar (in my case a hot chocolate). We then headed up to the VR Furs meet-up at 1:30pm, which was in the Dallas room of the Radisson Blu. This was very busy and over-subscribed, making the room unbearably stuffy in the 30C heat. One poor guy ended up collapsing and needed medical attention for at least fifteen minutes, necessitating a partial evacuation of the room to ensure he could leave if necessary. This was after the host had asked some basic straw poll questions such as how many hours we had played VR Chat and which devices we used. He also asked who used Unity and the like. Even with my 373 hours, I felt somewhat of a novice and when we were asked to split into small groups and just chat, I spoke to a few people before heading off.
Our next event was Gamepopper's 32 Years of EuroFurries, which took place in Los Angeles. This was very interesting and was based on his research for a forthcoming article. He also incorporated a lot of information from his excellently researched book Furtannia, which I have started to read, having bought it during my stay in the UK. The presentation lasted just over an hour and it was a great summary of all of the furry cons currently ongoing in Europe. The highlight for me was the early history of the fandom, particularly of Eurofurence, which I didn't quite know.
We had been trying to speak to Fox Amoore for most of the week, but he was always busy with con commitments. Fortunately, we were able to meet up in the Radisson Blu bar for a quick drink at 6pm, before he had to perform in the Pawpet Show. It was great catching up with him, if only for half an hour, and we're going to have to meet up properly again soon.
Once he had gone, we had an hour to kill before our train. Upon checking its status, I noted that it said 'Entrance and Exit not possible at station', which to my mind suggested the station was closed. In retrospect, what I think it meant was the train was no longer calling there, as I noticed later there had been an incident involving a bridge. Earlier in the day, I had noticed that Notefox had booked the same train but from Hamburg Hbf rather than Hamburg Dammtor. I dropped a message to check the status of his train and he said he had had no alerts, so I reasoned we needed to get to Hauptbahnhof. Fortunately, it was walkable in 25 minutes, but once we had picked up our bags, we checked Dammtor anyway. There, we noticed the S-Bahn trains were running, so we took them one stop to the main station. I was a little flustered though and ended up having a small tiff with Wolfie, while needing four ticket machines to accept my credit card didn't help either. I was also wearing my fem gear as I had no time to change, although no-one card and the nice Deutsche Bahn lady even commented on my look as we got off at Spandau. The train was delayed by about 10 minutes, meaning we had to sit around at Hauptbahnhof for around half an hour, but once on board, it was plain sailing. I sat next to Notefox - he had a reserved seat and we didn't, but there were enough free - and I encouraged him to get a disappointing chili con carne as he was hungry. We also gave him a can of orange beer that Gao had kindly presented us with. We got home shortly before 10pm, exhausted but happy.
I hadn't expected much from Eurofurence this year, fearing the convention centre approach wouldn't work. I feared furs all staying in different hotels would be too scattered and while this made room parties and impromptu gatherings more difficult, the vibe itself was good. The convention centre was a little soulless and not having exclusivity - we had to share with a skin cancer conference on the Wednesday - made it less our own little world, but the panels and events were as strong as ever. I felt a little down about not going to the pawpet show, charity concert (which to be fair had sold out before I had committed to staying on the Wednesday) or the fursuit theatre, but the queues were long and these performances lengthy. I tend to prefer streaming them anyway. The fact that it's only two hours from home helps and the fact we ended up staying another night was testament to how good it was. There was no Dead Dog this year, largely because an extra day renting the CCH would be expensive, but considering just how last-minute this all was, they pulled off a miracle just to make it all work. I'll likely come back next year, even if few of my British friends are likely to attend, as there were enough people we knew to make the week memorable. Hopefully next year, too, it'll switch back to its traditional Thursday through Saturday dates.
